Car Audio Central - Ultimate Car Audio Forum and Community

lets take a stroll down memory lane shall we? in order to post here you must post about products when you were of age to drive, cause we all remember 8 tracks, i mean shit, they were standard equipment in ford mustangs till like 83 or so......but lets just take a teary eyed glance back at where car audio used to be.......


i remember when i worked for Sight and Sound right out of high school i bought the ONLY powered cd head unit on the market..the pioneer deh-55 for like 569.00......i remember when pyle driver kicked ass and when mtx terminator was killing kicker in the prefab full range truck/hatch box market. i remember when kicker was all black with gold letters.....they didnt make amps but they did make prefab truck boxes......oh and they were made in america....i remember RF amps that would run an entire system at something like 1/4 ohm.....clarion REALLY sucked smelly ass and you had to put a cd into a cartridge before you could load it into their guaranteed to skip head units that had no internal power.....the alpine 7909, need i say more?....RF punch and pro series subs.....series one subs and components for what they were worth they sounded real good.....head units did not have pictures of sea animals on the screen......you could go to a car audio shop and actually piece together a component set with whatever you wanted....rf midbass, yamaha tweets, alpine tweets whatever.....if you blew a mid you could go buy a new one.......the pyramids pb300, the sub amp of newbies everywhere before dual and walmart hit the scene.......piezo tweeters, three way passive crosssovers i could go on and on and on but i wont

reminisce...thats a pretty intense word for you smoker. Im not old enough to recognize any of that stuff.

My first deck was a 'priemer' Pioneer pullout cassette. Don't remember the model, but I'm sure everyone who grew up in the 90's remembers what it looked like. They made the normal Pioneer and the Preimer, looked exactly the same. I think it was the only deck they made (lol)

I had a nice Kenwood CD player with Polk Audio speakers. They were a birthday gift for my 16th, awesome gift. Sounded awesome, actually.

Then i bought it..... and when i say it, I mean IT. I got the eBay special around th age of 17. Pair of 12" Legacy subwoofers in a bandpass box with Legacy amp. The subs blew within a week. So I upgraded, TO THE LEGACY RED SERIES. Pair of those 12s in a sealed enclosure, with 1800 WATT LEGACY RED SERIES AMP. It actually got pretty loud for what it was.

From there I went to 4 Fosgate Punch 12" subwoofers with a JBL 1200.1. Then a pair of 12" Kicker L7s each getting a Kicker KX600.1 amp. Then 4 ARC Audio 10" subs with ARC amps. Followed by a pair of Rainbow Vanadium 12" subs powered by ARC amps. Now I run the pair of 12" Elevation Audio Pro's and Elevation amps in the SC2, and pair of 15" Elevation Audio Executions and Elevation amps in the Focus. I've com a loooong way.

Lets see, I remember the pullouts, that clarion sucked, and the fact RF punch amps could push anything.

One of my friends had a plye 15 in a cheap box he built, pushed by a pyramid amp. I remember the first time he pulled up at the house and the windows were ratteling from the distortion. I honestly though it was the coolest thing in the world.

I also remember Impact subs, when Kicker Solos were the W7s of today, and when Sony made highend stuff that lasted, and sounded great.

You just reminded me Ryan, my first set of kickpanels I made were for some polk audio 5.25 inch coaxials. All I had pushing it was a Kenwood cd player, and they sounded pretty darn good.

Ok how about Techmaster PEB, and some of tthe other bass cds that came out.

Ok now for my systems. (I am not even going into the stuff I installed in my room, I will stick with cars only)

First was a Blaupunct tape deck, some radio shack 6/9s on a kraco 100 watt amp, 2 thump pro 12s on a crossfire 120/2, and I forget what I had in the front. I beleive I had the polks about this time too. Like a month later the subs plew, and thats when I got the impact 12s from a friend.

Once that system got stole I ended up with a kicker impulse 125/2, 2 kicker comp 12s, a Sony four chanel on some pioneer 6/9s and some cheap coaxials.

Well that stereo didn't last to long, and then I went with a Sony Mobile ES 7850, Sony Mobile ES 210EQ, some Boston Acoustic Pro Series 5.25s and a sony five chanel pushing those, and some sony 6/9s. ( I still had the kicker impulse 125/2, and the kicker comps)

Thats about the time I got my S10, and went with the all Sony Mobile ES, and Boston Acoustic install.

my first stereo i payed money for was a jensen dual knob tape deck and a set of 5 way 6x9's i dont remember the name of them though...but that was the mid 80's and ac/dc was jammin while i was cruisin the 78 camaro past the movie theater......

justin when you say punch do you mean the old late 80's early 90's with the white letters on them? if so you was da man....that stuff pounded...

Ok how about Techmaster PEB, and some of tthe other bass cds that came out.

we still have a copy at the shop...

Ohh...your talking about first stereo? I thought you were talking about vintage car audio.
In that case, i had:
2 10" Audiobahn Alum's
Audiobahn 150x2 amp
Sony HU
Kenwood 6x9 rear speakers
All run off of my stock 45 amp alternator

Yea, i didnt know sh!t back then (but who's to say i know anything now )

Went on to get some rockford stuff, sony amp (died in 2 weeks). Then got into kicker L7's (mistake). Now im looking to finally upgrade!!!

it doesnt have to be your first but feel free to include it....i just wanted to hear what people had hands on experience with that they missed or was a total joke looking back....if i had to go back in time i would still have my kenwood kdc-63r, rockford pa-1hd, ppi ax400 and a600.2, kicker solo 12's(first gen), mb quart tweets, kicker resolution series mids, RF punch midbass, kenwood kec-101 crossover or any combination of the old kenwood amps that did not bridge....kac 720/820/920/1020

phoenix gold XS series subs
some pioneer gmx414 amp

stuff from the mid-late nineties

first car, 1980 Mercury Fox bodied Capri. 8track, but I cut some holes next to the rear 6x9's and added two more 6x9's. Spliced the speaker wires to run both speakers right to left.

blew the stock 8track, sighs ( no more "Go For a Soda" ) in the car anymore. Replaced old deck with a Pioneer Supertuner...not I, not II, or even III or IV...Supertuner. Dial....with music search. Installed 4 Jensen Quadrax 6x9's. Powered them off a 7 band Pyramid 350w graphic eq. blew the Jensens, replaced with MM Plastic coned 6x9's. Next system was in 84 Grand National. All alpine. Dual knob head unit, 4x6's in dash, 4x10's in deck. Still no subs. next car..85 T/A...took out rear seat, 4 15" Home speaker woofers powered by 4 Punch 75's..the original square kind. Each amp-each speaker...oh and 4x6's in the dash. Upgraded to 4 18" Stillwater Designs Subwoofers powered by an RF Power 1000...freakin 250w x4. IT HAMMERED...still same tinny 4x6's in the dash.

New truck...84 Ford F150 XL Stepside...two Stillwater Design 12's behind seat. Power 300 to them. 5.25's in doors.

new car...92 Ford Taurus...Alpine 7909, Alpine MRVF400, MRVT150, Orion Cobalt 10's, Canton 6.5 coax, Orion 6MB, USD wave guides, audio control eqt's x4. Totaled that car just before IASCA Natl's.

new car, new system..and last since new install in current car...94 Taurus SHO.
McIntosh MX5000 HU, McIntosh MC4000M 6ch 1000w amp, McIntosh 5.25 components in kicks, McIntosh 5.25 components in deck, McIntosh 12" Subs x2 in trunk...ported. Was a shop car...but i still got to keep all the system. Sold the car with system, 28,000 dollars.

now have 98 Mark VIII LSC, Audison, Eclipse, Focal